Globalized planta medica and processes of drug validation The Artemisinin Enterprise

This chapter explores the interplay of circulation and governance of the plant-based pharmaceutical anti-malaria drug artemisinin. First, it unpacks the complex journey from the detection of artemisinin in China in the 1970s to commercial Artemisia plantations in East Africa and today’s global annual administration of 400 million treatment courses of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). Second, using Tanzania as an example, it examines the pharmaceutical logic by which ACTs circulate and investigates how global health actors (WHO, national drug regulators, donors), commercial actors (pharmaceutical industry, private enterprises), scientists, and philanthropic institutions have created, controlled, and stabilized their pharmaceutical legitimacy. By investigating the pharmaceutical nexus driving the Artemisinin Enterprise, this chapter achieves a multi-layered look at the alliances between these actors, the regimes of intervention, and capital accumulation. This chapter touches important issues such as intellectual property, patents and monopolies of multinational companies, the tension between interest/profit and concern for people’s health, the hierarchy of knowledge, and the injustices toward farmers.